here is the email i got over 2 weeks late..

read this horsesh!t...

Hi Nate,



Your email was forwarded on to me from the regional team down in Montesano. Thanks for contacting WDFW about the salmon seasons in the Puyallup and Carbon River, and your interest in those fisheries. Unfortunately the forecast this year for wild coho in the Puyallup Drainage is one of the lowest forecasts in the last decade, with less than 2,000 adults forecasted to return to the entire Puyallup River. This is primarily due to extensive flooding that occurred early in the 2020 winter and affected the 2019 brood year. Those juveniles wouldn’t have emerged from the gravel when that flooding occurred, likely resulting in high mortalities to juvenile coho from that brood year. There are smolt traps which are used to estimate abundances of juvenile salmonids emigrating out of the Puyallup and White Rivers, and the estimates from the 2019 age class are much lower than average indicating that the scour from flooding resulted in significant mortalities of juvenile salmonids. Juveniles from the 2019 age class are the 2022 3 year old adults returning this fall.



Due to the low forecast for returning adults, the Carbon and Puyallup fisheries were shut down early to protect wild coho in the later fall months when adults are migrating to spawning habitat in the upper portions of the watershed. The intent was to find a balance between offering recreational opportunity while also trying to protect the wild population in a year of low predicted abundance. Based on the data collected in creel surveys on the Puyallup and Carbon River the majority of hatchery that are harvested are caught in August and September. Closing fisheries at the end of September provides anglers solid opportunity for hatchery Chinook and coho and then provides some protection for wild coho in the later fall months.



The Carbon and upper Puyallup are closed due to negotiations with tribal co-managers to reach agreement on a Regional Management Plan (RMP) for Chinook that secures ESA coverage for our Chinook fisheries for a 10 year period. It was a policy level decision to close during those days to reduce impacts on wild Chinook in the Puyallup Basin in our collective fisheries in order to meet the management objectives that are part of the RMP. The wild population of fall Chinook in the Puyallup has continued to decline over the last decade with an even sharper decline observed since 2019. Failing to reach agreement on the RMP would put coverage for all of our Chinook fisheries in Puget Sound in jeopardy.



Thanks again for your interest and passion in the Puyallup and Carbon River salmon fisheries and let me know if you have further questions. I hope that we can return to a normal season that extends through the fall next year.




Gabe Madel

Fisheries Biologist

South Puget Sound

Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife




soooooo, they start off with the flooding that occured, that wasnt that bad actually, nothing of the likes of the 2009 flood, not even remotely close...

alright, so floods killed off the smolt possibly..

then they go right into "the Puyallup and Carbon are closed" on the agreement with the tribes, for the 10 year plan (2027 as said on the website), to protect the Chinook that has been declining for over a decade...

right to the last sentence, of "I hope that we can return to a normal season that extends through the fall next year."

next year is 2023, not 2027, if you have a 10 year agreement to shut the river down early until 2027 to protect Chinook, how do you open it up to normal seasons next year?

100 percent the nets will be in the water all October, November and December, and probably more days than normal because they will adjust their season for surplus fish since we arent fishing for them... just like the Quinaults did a while ago when the Hoh got shut down early and they took over 80 percent of harvestable wild steelhead because the river was shut down to us...

fvck the WDFW, and the tribes... resource raping bastards...